Game Night: Burros football hosts Oak Hills in regular season finale

In its last game of the regular season, Burroughs will prepare for the playoffs by taking on one of the best teams in its division. The Burros host Eastern Division, No. 4-ranked Oak Hills on Friday night.

In its last game of the regular season, Burroughs will prepare for the playoffs by taking on one of the best teams in its division. The Burros host Eastern Division, No. 4-ranked Oak Hills on Friday night.

“We want to get a feel for what the playoffs are like, and the caliber of teams we are going to be up against,” Burros head coach Todd Mather said. “I still believe that Oak Hills is the top team in our division — the kids can see what the top of division looks like.”

Burroughs (5-4) will receive the Desert Sky League’s first or second seed in the Eastern Division playoffs based on the outcome of Thursday night’s Victor Valley-Silverado game. The Burros won the coin flip on Tuesday to create the best possible scenario if tri-champions occur in the DSL.

“It’s not the way we wanted to get it, but we’ll definitely take it — it gives us a second chance,” Mather said. “We got lucky.”

Even though the Burros will know their postseason fate well before they kick off against Oak Hills (8-1), they are going to play to win against the Bulldogs. Oak Hills was ranked No. 1 in the Eastern Division before a narrow loss to Serrano on Oct. 18, and has won its two games since by an average of 40 points.

Burroughs’ defense faces a tough task against an Oak Hills offense averaging nearly 500 yards per game. Mather considers the Bulldogs’ offense one of the best he has seen in high school, and compared its speed and talent to Burroughs’ 2005 offense — the year the Burros won the section championship.

“They have the most speed we’ve seen all year at the skill positions,” Mather said.

Quarterback Nolan Brammer, who has thrown for 1,669 yards and 22 touchdowns this season, leads the Oak Hills offense. The Bulldogs run a spread offense and spend most of their time in four-receiver sets — 85 percent of their plays have come with two receivers lined up on each side.

“Their quarterback is the best we’ve seen — he’s got a cannon. He’s rolling right, throwing 65 yards on the run and dropping it in,” Mather said. “If we let him sit back in the pocket he’s going to kill us.”

Burroughs will try to disrupt Oak Hills’ potent offense with constant pressure. The Burros got away from their attacking mentality on defense in the past two weeks, and plan to consistently blitz and use defensive line stunts to pressure the Bulldogs.

“We have to try and confuse them — if we sit back and play read-and-react defense it’s going to be a long night,” Mather said. “We have to take our chances and just try to bring more than they can block.”

Page 2 of 3 - An increase in defensive pressure means Burroughs will play tighter coverage in the secondary. The Burros will attempt to shake Brammer by disguising pass coverage that shows man-to-man on one side of the field and Cover 2 or Cover 3 on the other.

“We’re disguising a lot of our coverages because he’s a really good quarterback,” Mather said. “We’re going to play a little tighter — if we get beat over the top, we get beat over the top.”

On the ground, running back Gino Mastandrea carries the ball behind Oak Hills’ massive offensive line. Since taking over for injured starter DeZhontaey Fletcher three weeks ago, Mastandrea has run for 512 yards and five touchdowns while averaging 10.9 yards per carry.

Burroughs’ offense has had its share of struggles in the past two weeks, and it will be a challenge for the Burros to move the ball against Oak Hills. The Bulldogs have a fast, talented defense anchored by a defensive line featuring Kennedy Emesibe, a 6-foot-3-inch, 247-pound junior that has received offers from a handful of colleges — including Arizona and Washington State.

“He is a Division I player, and we’re going to have to look to double-team him and possibly run zone read against him,” Mather said. “He’s big, physical and very fast.”

Burroughs averaged 1.7 yards per carry last week while running for 57 yards against Victor Valley — its second-lowest total of the season. The Burros will have to be patient with the ground game on Friday night.

“We’re going to have to stick with it — you have to keep those linebackers running downhill and keep them honest,” Mather said. “It’s going to be very tough to run on them.”

Burroughs will look to run outside out of its double tight sets, which provide the personnel necessary to block Oak Hills’ defensive line. The Burros will also try to establish their ground game with zone read plays, featuring running back Trevor Baker, that allow the offensive line to double-team the Bulldogs in the trenches.

“We can double-team on our zone runs, hide Trevor back there and let him pop something to get three, four, or five yards,” Mather said. “Usually you don’t want to go double tight and let them jam it in there and try to match up with these guys, but I like their front.”

Quarterback Ryan Sanford has played more defense the past two games, which is part of the reason Burroughs has struggled to move the ball. Sanford will see less action defensively on Friday night, which will allow him more time to focus on dissecting Oak Hills’ defense.

Page 3 of 3 - “I have a chance to talk to him about the upcoming offensive series — the first play of the drive he already knows because we talked about it. The last two weeks we haven’t been able to do that,” Mather said. “We have to do a better job getting him off the field.”

Sanford will make most of his throws from outside the pocket against Oak Hills, and most of Burroughs’ pass plays will call for quick routes. The Bulldogs’ secondary will play off of receivers in coverage, which should leave the short passing game open.

“They’ll give us a cushion, so we have to hit some of the quick stuff,” Mather said. “We have to run really crisp routes and the ball has to come out on time.”

This week Mather has installed a few option plays for Sanford, where the quarterback will diagnose the defense at the line and then pick which side to run the play on. In the Burros’ empty set, they will run plays targeting receiver Tyron Jones in space.

“We’re capable of moving the ball and doing some decent things against them,” Mather said.

Burroughs hosts Oak Hills on Friday night at Sherman E. Burroughs Stadium. Kickoff is at 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on 93.7 FM.